Morris Talansky, the rabbi and Long Island businessman whose testimony brought down the prime minister of Israel, instructs me to meet him in Lawrence, a few minutes from his home in Woodsburgh, Long Island. “There’s a kosher Dunkin’ Donuts,” he says curtly.

The Dunkin’ Donuts is in the Five Towns (Hewlett, Lawrence, Inwood, Woodmere, which includes Woodsburgh, and Cedarhurst), the suburban homeland that Jews have carved out of Long Island sprawl. Driving there, I pass landscaped yards—hydrangeas are in bloom—and subdevelopments with gently winding roads. From one I can see a country club, a seat of the Five Towns aristocracy, which is for all intents and purposes exclusively Jewish.

The Dunkin’ Donuts shares none of the neighborhood’s joyful materialism. There’s a Formica counter, a dimpled drop ceiling, and, off to the side, a cheerless sitting area that management has tried to liven up with loud pop music. I spot one seated customer. He is unshaven, with several days of cottony white stubble. He’s pivoted toward me, slumped against the back of the chair.

“Morris?” I ask. I don’t recognize him, though I’d seen him in Israel the week before.

He nods, though barely. He looks worn out.

Morris is angry with the media, which he blames for the recent turn in his life. For a time, his business life was in shambles. Friends peeled away. In shul, people he’s known for years engage in lashon hara, evil gossip, and against a fellow Jew, whispering about his motives, his credibility, his complicated business life.

“I hope God makes them pay for what they did to me,” Morris has said. He means the media.

Of course, it wasn’t the media that got Morris involved in this mess. Partly it was his own ideals. Morris had loved the idea of Israel from the time he was a little boy growing up in Brooklyn. As he climbed ladders, both spiritual and material, his devotion had blossomed. One consequence was a close relationship with Ehud Olmert, an ambitious, skilled, and tenacious Israeli politician who was climbing himself, from Knesset member to minister of Health to mayor of Jerusalem and finally to prime minister. To Morris, Olmert almost seemed like an incarnation of Israel. “Olmert talked about the hopes and dreams as well as the struggles of Israel,” says Morris. “There was no one more articulate.” For Morris, Olmert became a cause. As Olmert ascended, so did Morris.

Then this past April, while Morris visited his apartment in Jerusalem, the Israeli police pounded on his door one Sunday at 6 a.m. They took him to the station. They confiscated his passport, interrogated him nine times, and, before their corruption investigation was even complete, rushed him onto the witness stand. If they had waited, Morris might have disappeared back to Long Island, they claimed.

Morris took the stand about a month later and, under questioning by the prosecutor, told an explosive story. Morris estimated that over the past fifteen years, he’d given his friend Olmert $150,000.

“What way did you hand over the money?” the prosecutor asked.

“In an envelope,” said Morris.

Investigators insinuated that the money was in exchange for official favors, and that there were hundreds of thousands of dollars at issue. But Morris, like Olmert, insisted that the “cash envelopes,” as they were called in Israel, weren’t bribes intended to promote Morris’s ventures. In fact, Morris didn’t seem to have many business interests that Olmert might help; Olmert did try to open at least one door for “my dear friend,” as he called Morris, though that had been quickly slammed shut. The money seemed more in the manner of friendly gifts. Morris picked up some tabs; lent Olmert money for, Morris said, a vacation; and contributed to his campaigns. Morris passed along his own money, and also raised funds at kaffeeklatsch events.

But the image of the country’s top official tucking envelopes of cash into his suitcase, as Morris described, looked unseemly at best. Olmert had long been an unpopular prime minister. A half-dozen other investigations are circling around him. But it was the vivid imagery supplied by his friend that finally undid the prime minister. Israelis already suspected he was corrupt; now they had a picture, even if it wasn’t exactly a smoking gun. “Talansky robbed him of whatever popularity he had,” Nachum Barnea, one of the country’s leading newspaper columnists, told me.

P. 26 “Over the years, his religious and business lives had become completely intertwined…..willing to launder money”

p. 29 ” He felt that in America-even in the greater Five Towns- a Jew is always in some measure on foreign turf.” No matter how integrated you feel you are , he tlls me, anti-semitism lurks in very sophisticated places.”

COPS: JEW GUYS NEED TO TALK!

The New York Post

By REUVEN FENTON

September 22, 2008
Posted: 4:06 am
September 22, 2008

he NYPD is trying to settle a long-running dispute between two rival Orthodox Jewish patrol groups – and keep them from taking the law into their own hands – by uniting them into one police-supervised unit, The Post has learned.

The challenge is getting them to cooperate.

Shmira and Shomrim, private crime-patrol organizations in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, have been rivals since the late ’90s, when they split.

Shmira has agreed to the merger, which was proposed in June. Shomrim has refused.

The plan would create a united, NYPD-trained patrol group the department would supervise and partially fund, a source said.

Shomrim spokesman Binyamin Lifshits says the group is concerned that the NYPD would monitor all emergency calls – including private matters like domestic disputes, which the Orthodox community wants to settle on its own.

But Shomrim’s larger objection is with Shmira, which Shomrim has accused of trying to sabotage its operations by slashing patrol-car tires, making prank emergency calls and falsely informing on Shomrim to the police.

“We don’t sit down with Shmira,” Lifshits said of his rivals, which split from Shomrim in 1999 after certain members were thrown out for alleged past criminal activity.

“The police are trying to twist our arms to work with them. This we cannot accept.”

But Yossi Stern, 38, the director of Shmira, laughs at claims made against his group.

“It’s all a bunch of rhetoric. Show me a police report,” he said. “We’re not out to harass anybody. We’re out to do a service for the community.”

The NYPD has long been frustrated with both patrols. It came to a head this year on April 14 when a member of Shmira attacked the black college-student son of a police officer.

Jewish Center Takes Center Stage

It was all about the applicant last week as hundreds of people squeezed themselves into the Whitfield Room at the Greene Community Center to hear the start of what is anticipated as a long public hearing concerning the Chabad-Lubavitch of the Shoreline, Inc.’s proposal to the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC).

Whether in favor or against the proposed Jewish center slated for Goose Lane, an overflowing crowd sat on the floor or leaned against the walls to listen to more than three hours of testimony from the applicant’s team.

As she has reiterated in the past, PZC Chairman Shirley Girioni said all interested parties will have a chance to speak. The meeting was continued to Sept. 17 and may possibly be extended to Oct. 1.

For the first night of the public hearing, however, it was the chance for the applicant and their attorney, architects, and engineers to explain their proposal.

Marjorie Shansky, attorney for the applicant, categorized the property, 181 Goose Lane, as an ideal spot for the 176,000 square foot house of worship due to the neighboring industrial and commercial area.

“The property is across the street from the largest industrial park in Guilford,” said Shansky. “I believe this is a perfect use for this parcel.”

Engineer Russell Waldo said that the proposed construction would be accomplished in two stages: the rabbi’s home at the rear of the property would be built first, followed by the synagogue. The public building would host many different activities including a day care center, adult education classes, summer camp, religious services, and celebrations.

PZC member Thomas Cost asked if the septic system would require state approval to which Waldo replied no, since its capacity (an average of 650 to 1,410 gallons per day) was anticipated at less than 2,000 gallons a day. Proposed systems that process more than 2,000 gallons a day need Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approval, added Waldo.

Michael Wilson, a traffic engineer with the firm Milone & McBroom, discussed traffic studies he had conducted at the Goose Lane area. He noted that over a three-year period (2003 to 2006) there were 24 accidents on Goose Lane, 11 of which involved one vehicle rear-ending another.

Ray Volpe, an independent traffic consultant hired by the town and paid for by the applicant, said that assuming Wilson’s site traffic analysis was correct, he saw no impact on the amount of traffic at the entrance ramp on I-95 south and no significant impact on the existing traffic.

“I analyzed [traffic studies] of two synagogues in the area and will say that Wilson’s numbers were conservatively on the high side,” added Volpe.

Volpe did emphasize that no vehicles should be allowed to drop off passengers street-side.

“It could be a dangerous situation if one or two vehicles were dropping off people on Goose Lane,” said Volpe.

Architect Sandra Vlock of Arbonies King Vlock of Branford said she and her partner, Glen Arbonies, designed the Chabad building to “be a good neighbor to the area.”

“The building is in three forms and nests into the topography of the site,” she said. “It is scaled to people and set back from Goose Lane, keeping with the character of the broad lawn.”

John Leary, a real estate valuation expert, concluded that the proposed facility “would not have any negative effect on adjacent property values.

“Religious facilities are usually considered an enhancement to a neighborhood,” said Leary, noting that the primary character of the Goose Lane neighborhood was no longer residential. “It fits right in.”

The Guilford Planning & Zoning Commission public hearing on the proposed Chabad on the Shoreline is continued to Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Greene Community Center on Church Street.

Williamsburg cyclists are on a roll. City officials said yesterday they won’t eliminate the Brooklyn neighborhood’s bike lanes despite concerns by the Hasidic community that they attract scantily clad hipster cyclists who go at dangerous speeds.

Scott Gastel, a Department of Transportation spokesman, said the lanes “increase safety”.

Rubashkin’s meat is only at 40% of the capacity before the raid and the business is quickly going down, unable to recover from the ongoing Raids, Arrests and loss of workers.

As a result, Anash are being requested to to help lend money to Rubashkin as last ditch effort to perhaps avert Rubashkins total demise.

Mitzvah Lefarsem Oysey Mitzvah!

Sholom Ber Drizin reportedly lent Rubashkin approximately 1.5 Million dollars, recently and DaasHakohol knows of one other source who lent Rubashkin $50,000.00 and many other members of Anash who have been asked and have kindheartedly opened their hearts to have Rachmones on Rubashkin, who is now in the process of going under.

Mitzvah Lefarsem Oysey Mitzvah and especially in this great Mitzvah of Tzedaka for Rubashkin, DaasHakohol.com will IYH publicize all donors who will take part in this great Mitzvah of Gemilas Chassodim and Tzedaka for Rubashkin.

Meatpacker Faces Charges of Violating Child Laws

The Iowa attorney general on Tuesday brought an array of criminal charges for child labor violations against the owners and top managers of a meatpacking plant where nearly 400 workers were detained in a May immigration raid.

The state charges were the first to be brought against owners and senior managers at the plant, Agriprocessors, since the May 12 raid. Federal prosecutors convicted nearly 300 workers, most of them illegal immigrants from Guatemala, on document fraud charges, with the majority sentenced to five months in prison. Advocates for immigrants had criticized federal prosecutors for punishing the workers but not the managers.

In all, 9,311 criminal misdemeanor charges involving 32 under-age workers were filed against the company, Agriprocessors Inc., and its owner, Aaron Rubashkin, and his son Sholom, who was the top manager of the packing plant in Postville, Iowa.

The complaint charges that the plant employed workers under the legal age of 18, including seven who were under 16, from Sept. 9, 2007, to May 12. Some workers, including some younger than 16, worked on machinery prohibited for employees under 18, including “conveyor belts, meat grinders, circular saws, power washers and power shears,” said an affidavit filed with the complaint.

In a statement, Chaim Abrahams, a senior executive at the plant, denied the accusations and said the company would go to trial “to put to rest the insidious notion that it knowingly employed under-age workers.”

Mr. Abrahams said the minors had lied about their age, and he predicted that Iowa prosecutors would not be able to prove that managers knew their employees were not old enough to work.

Under Iowa law, employing a worker under 18 on the floor of a slaughterhouse is a criminal misdemeanor with a maximum punishment of 30 days in jail and a fine of $625. But the charges multiplied to more than 9,000 because a new one was brought for each day and each offense. If convicted, the Rubashkins could face more than $5 million in fines and significant prison sentences.

The two-page affidavit claims that Aaron and Sholom Rubashkin were “frequently present” in the slaughterhouse where under-age employees were working, and that they “possessed shared knowledge that Agriprocessors employed undocumented aliens” and that “many of those workers were minors.”

The complaint also charges that under-age workers were not paid for all the overtime they worked and were forced to work before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m., a violation of child labor laws. Agriprocessors managers “participated in efforts to conceal children when federal and state labor department officials inspected the plant,” the complaint says.

Many of the young workers are illegal immigrants who are seeking special visas, known as U-visas, to remain in the United States to cooperate with the investigation. A lawyer representing them, Sonia Parras Konrad, said many of them had not applied for those visas because they could not afford the $545 filing fee. She said 21 young immigrants she represents were seeking a waiver of the fee from the Homeland Security Department.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has battled unsuccessfully to represent Agriprocessors workers, said the charges showed that abuse of child labor was “standard operating procedure” at the Postville plant.

“Given the seriousness and the sheer number of charges, we cannot see how this company can remain in operation under the current ownership,” a union spokesman, Scott Frotman, said.

In addition to the Rubashkins, Agriprocessors’ human resources manager, Elizabeth Billmeyer, was charged, as were two other managers, Laura Althouse and Karina Freund. All defendants are scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 17.

11:00AM EST: Two troubled teenagers from Crown Heights, Brooklyn have been arrested and are in custody in the Town of Fallsburg, YWN has learned.
The two teens were apparently standing in front of Gombos Bakery on South Fallsburg’s Main Street early Friday morning – and were displaying drugs to a vendor selling flowers in front of the store.
When the vendor told the teens to put the drugs away and kindly move away, the teens assaulted him.
The Fallsburg PD responded, and although the teens had fled the scene and dropped the drugs, officers located them – along with the drugs – and placed them under arrest.
Catskills Hatzolah responded for the victim assaulted, who was treated for facial trauma.
The two boys are currently in the Fallsburg jail-cell, and were arraigned by a Fallsburg judge a few moments ago. Sadly, the boys – who claimed that they are “homeless” – were not cooperative with the judge – who raised the $2,000 bail price for both boys. One was raised to $5,000, and one was raised to $2,500. The boys were charged with 3rd Degree Assault, and criminal possession of marijuana
Fallsburg Police Chief Simmy Williams tells YWN that he has reached out to a representative from Kosher Coaching, and other community ‘Askanim’ to ensure that the teens get the proper help they need.
“These are obviously troubled teens who need help getting their lives back together,” Chief Williams said. “The law was broken, and a judge will deal with that, but they still need help – and that’s why I made sure to reach out to the appropriate organizations.”
Additionally, Chief Williams told YWN that Main Street in the Town of South Fallsburg is under 24hr surveillance with cameras, which helps the police department with many crimes.